“WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”
MARK 10:17-31

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”
20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”
21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!
25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”
29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,
30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

I don’t know about you but I’m in trouble. If Jesus says he isn’t good then where does that leave me? Where does it leave you?

A rich man runs up to Jesus and calls him good teacher and what does Jesus do? He says, “Why do you call me good? No on is good except God alone.” Let’s not forget that this is the Jesus who healed hundreds of people and performed all kinds of miracles. This is the Jesus who uttered incredible words of wisdom and practiced what he preached when it came to love by suffering on the Cross. So, I’ll ask the question again. If that Jesus isn’t good where does that leave us?

You could end up feeling the same way George Burns felt when he decided to insure his singing voice for a million dollars. The comedian said, “I was so excited, I couldn’t wait to rush down to the insurance company. I took a cassette and a tape recorder with me so the insurance man could hear my voice. It was one of my best numbers – a syncopated version of Yankee Doodle Blues with a yodeling finish. The insurance man listened patiently to the whole thing, then he looked at me and said, ‘Mr. Burns, you should have come to us before you had the accident.’”

Sometimes it’s hard to escape the feeling that you’re not quite good enough. You play for a softball team and strike out in the ninth inning with the tying run on third base. You get a report card and it has all A’s and one B on it. You go to your 25th reunion and you see classmates with better jobs and more expensive cars. Your friend receives an award, but you don’t have any trophies to show off and you’ve never had your picture in the paper. Sometimes ministers also feel like they’re not good enough. You wake up one day and you realize that you’re never going to preach like Norman Vincent Peale or have your own Sunday morning television show like Robert Schuller.

You’re more like the minister who was surprised one day when an elderly man got up in the middle of his sermon and walked out of the sanctuary. After the service the elderly man’s wife apologized to the minister. “I’m really sorry,” she said. “I hope you weren’t offended when Ralph got up and walked out in the middle of your sermon.” “Well,” the minister replied, “I was a little surprised.” “I wouldn’t worry about it,” the wife said. “Ralph has been walking in his sleep since he was a kid.”

Sometimes it’s hard to escape the feeling that you’re not quite good enough. “Good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you can me good, no one is good except God alone.” That simple truth is why Jesus warned the disciples that it isn’t going to be easy when it comes to getting into the kingdom of heaven. His exact words were, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom…”

The rich man wasn’t good enough. The disciples weren’t good enough. I’m not good enough, your neighbors and friends and family aren’t good enough and I’m sorry but you’re not good enough either. That’s why the rich man walked away that day with a heavy heart. That’s why the disciples threw their hands up in despair and asked, “Then who can be saved?” In other words “Woe is us!”

Sometimes it’s hard to escape the feeling that you’re not quite good enough. The next time you feel that way though go back and take another look at the story. Look at two things that Jesus said and did. What did Jesus do? Mark tells us that he looked at the rich man and loved him. Jesus knew that the man standing in front of him was rich in material things but poor in spirit. That’s why Jesus challenged him to sell everything he had and to give the money to the poor. Mark tells us that the man went away “sorrowful for he had great possessions.” The rich man wasn’t quite good enough and yet Jesus loved him anyway. He loved him in spite of his limits and his liabilities. He loved him in spite of his deficits and deficiencies. He loved him in spite of his flaws and his faults.

Sometimes Jesus loves us in spite of ourselves. That’s what Jesus did that day. What did Jesus say? When the disciples asked “who can be saved?” Jesus replied, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

That is actually the heart of the Good News. The key that can open the gates to the kingdom of heaven won’t be found in our good deeds. It will only be found in God’s grace. It will only be found in the love that came to dwell among us full of grace and truth in Bethlehem. It will only be found in the lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. It will only be found in the Jesus who said to the disciples at the Last Supper, “Greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends. It will only be found in the Christ who on the Cross said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” and then said to the penitent thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
On the Cross Jesus came face to face with all that isn’t quite good enough in us and basically said, “There isn’t anything you can do that will ever make me stop loving you.” It’s call God’s grace and that’s where you’ll find salvation. It’s where you’ll find the key that will unlock the gates to the kingdom of heaven.

“With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Every now and then you get a glimpse of that grace here on earth. It’s similar to and yet 100 times greater than the grace filled moment that a priest shared one night with a dying man. The priest was a hospital chaplain and one night he was called to the hospital to give a dying man the last rites. When the priest walked into the room he found an elderly man waiting for him; an elderly man who was in deep spiritual pain. “Father,” the man said, “when I was young, I did something that was so bad I’ve never told anyone about it. It was so bad that I haven’t spent a single day since without thinking about it and reliving the horror.” It took a lot of coaxing, but the priest finally convinced the dying man to make his confession and unburden his soul. What unfolded was a sad story of a young man who worked many years ago for a railroad company out in Bakersfield, California. One night, a couple of days before Christmas, the young man went out into the yard to push a switch for a northbound train. Unfortunately, because everyone had been celebrating the holiday the man was drunk and he pushed the switch the wrong way. With tears in his eyes the elderly man said, “(T)hat train slammed into a passenger car at the next crossing and killed a young man, his wife and their two daughters.” There was a heavy silence in the air as the priest thought about the man’s story. Then with great compassion and love the priest put his hand on the man’s shoulder and said, “If I can forgive you, God can forgive you, because in that car were my mother, my father and my two older sisters.” (taken from Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul pp.6-10)

When you feel like you’re not good enough just remember that it’s all about God’s grace and will God all things are possible. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes
October 11, 2009